Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in young people leaving care in England : a study profiling the language, literacy and communication abilities of young people transitioning from care to independence

Research indicates children and young people in care have a high prevalence of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) as part of a complex set of vulnerabilities. This study describes the profile of language, literacy and communication abilities of a cohort of care leavers. The language, literacy and communication abilities of 44 young people leaving care between the ages of 16 and 26 years were assessed using standardized measures. Demographic data about the young people was collected along with a survey to key staff to capture their perceptions and experiences of the language and communication abilities of these young people. Ninety percent of the care leavers’ language abilities were below average and over 60% met criteria for DLD in combination with literacy difficulties, developmental disorders and social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH). The implications of unidentified DLD on the lives of young people leaving care is discussed. Earlier identification of DLD is advocated to enable services to intervene to facilitate more positive outcomes and life chances for this very vulnerable population

Energetics and atomic mechanisms of dislocation nucleation in strained epitaxial layers

We study numerically the energetics and atomic mechanisms of misfit dislocation nucleation and stress relaxation in a two-dimensional atomistic model of strained epitaxial layers on a substrate with lattice misfit. Relaxation processes from coherent to incoherent states for different transition paths are studied using interatomic potentials of Lennard-Jones type and a systematic saddle point and transition path search method. The method is based on a combination of repulsive potential minimization and the Nudged Elastic Band method. For a final state with a single misfit dislocation, the minimum energy path and the corresponding activation barrier are obtained for different misfits and interatomic potentials. We find that the energy barrier decreases strongly with misfit. In contrast to continuous elastic theory, a strong tensile-compressive asymmetry is observed. This asymmetry can be understood as manifestation of asymmetry between repulsive and attractive branches of pair potential and it is found to depend sensitively on the form of the potential.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

The linker histone H1.0 generates epigenetic and functional intratumor heterogeneity

Tumors comprise functionally diverse subpopulations of cells with distinct proliferative potential. Here, we show that dynamic epigenetic states defined by the linker histone H1.0 determine which cells within a tumor can sustain the long-term cancer growth. Numerous cancer types exhibit high inter- and intratumor heterogeneity of H1.0, with H1.0 levels correlating with tumor differentiation status, patient survival, and, at the single-cell level, cancer stem cell markers. Silencing of H1.0 promotes maintenance of self-renewing cells by inducing derepression of megabase-sized gene domains harboring downstream effectors of oncogenic pathways. Self-renewing epigenetic states are not stable, and reexpression of H1.0 in subsets of tumor cells establishes transcriptional programs that restrict cancer cells’ long-term proliferative potential and drive their differentiation. Our results uncover epigenetic determinants of tumor-maintaining cells

Spatial interactions in agent-based modeling

Agent Based Modeling (ABM) has become a widespread approach to model complex interactions. In this chapter after briefly summarizing some features of ABM the different approaches in modeling spatial interactions are discussed. It is stressed that agents can interact either indirectly through a shared environment and/or directly with each other. In such an approach, higher-order variables such as commodity prices, population dynamics or even institutions, are not exogenously specified but instead are seen as the results of interactions. It is highlighted in the chapter that the understanding of patterns emerging from such spatial interaction between agents is a key problem as much as their description through analytical or simulation means. The chapter reviews different approaches for modeling agents' behavior, taking into account either explicit spatial (lattice based) structures or networks. Some emphasis is placed on recent ABM as applied to the description of the dynamics of the geographical distribution of economic activities, - out of equilibrium. The Eurace@Unibi Model, an agent-based macroeconomic model with spatial structure, is used to illustrate the potential of such an approach for spatial policy analysis.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 105 references; a chapter prepared for the book "Complexity and Geographical Economics - Topics and Tools", P. Commendatore, S.S. Kayam and I. Kubin, Eds. (Springer, in press, 2014

‘It used to be brutal, now it’s an art’:changing negotiations of violence and masculinity in British karate

In most western (and indeed eastern) cultures, fighting is seen as an ultimate symbol of masculinity – an embodied display of dominance, control and violence (Bourdieu, 2001). As a space legitimising and praising performances of mimetic violence (Dunning, 1999), combat sports provide an arena where the virtues of dominance and power at the heart of conceptions of orthodox masculinity (Anderson, 2010 ) or hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2005) can be symbolically presented by men through bodily displays of strength, physical aggression, and the taking and overcoming of pain (Bourdieu, 2001; Messner, 1990; Wacquant, 2004). Yet, over the last twenty years the focus of karate in Britain has been perceived to shift from aggressive acts of 'hitting hard' to developing and displaying controlled, acrobatic and technically precise movements. Drawn from a nine-month ethnography and 7 semi-structured interviews, this chapter explores how British male karate practitioners re/negotiate ideas of masculinity and embodiments of a masculine identity in the context of karate’s changing emphasis on, and practices of, 'violence'. This paper suggests that a 'civilising' shift (Elias and Dunning, 1986) in the competition rules increases in women’s participation in karate with men, and subsequent negotiations of mimetic violence, complicate the use of violence as a symbol of praised masculine identity within British karate . A praised masculine identity is crafted by carefully blending traits conventional deemed feminine such as technical precision, elegance and agility alongside displays of strength and dominance. Such performances challenge conceptions of an orthodox sporting masculinity and notions of hierarchical gender distinction

Combined Impact of Lifestyle-Related Factors on Total and Cause-Specific Mortality among Chinese Women: Prospective Cohort Study

Findings from the Shanghai Women's Health Study confirm those derived from other, principally Western, cohorts regarding the combined impact of lifestyle-related factors on mortality

Outsourcing and structural change: shifting firm and sectoral boundaries

The paper aims at investigating the structural change implications of outsourcing. In trying to bridge the organizational/industrial and the sectoral/structural analysis of outsourcing, it discusses the rational and the methodological pros and cons of a “battery” of outsourcing measurements for structural change analysis. Their functioning is then illustrated through a concise application of them to the OECD area over the ’80s and the early ’90s. A combined used of them emerges as recommendable in checking for the role of outsourcing with respect to that of other structural change determinants